March 30 

Trout fishing preview

Spring Caddis Hatch SE Minnesota

by Joyce Kolbet, SSND

News was out! There were daily insect hatches on one of our favorite trout streams in the Driftless Area of SE Minnesota. I called my nephew, Kyle, who lives and works in Rochester to see if he had time to head down to the stream with me. “Sure! Meet me at my house and we’ll drive down together.”

It was about 11 AM when Kyle and I arrived at our spot. A couple other vehicles came at about the same time. In the pool nearest the road we noticed the trout already setting up or “staging” for their feeding lanes in the stream, i.e. larger trout chasing away the smaller ones so they would be in the best positions to feed.

Hurriedly Kyle and I assembled our fly rods, put on our chest waders, boots and fly vests in order to claim our favorite spot on the stream. More anglers were arriving now, also vying for their casting positions on the stream. Guess you could say we were “staging” too! The annual caddis fly hatch was about to begin.

Off we walked to a favorite pool about ½ mile upstream where we knew there were lots of large brown trout. We were the first ones to arrive, so we set ourselves up at the foot of the pool so no one else could infringe on our spot.

As always, the challenge of trout fishing is to match the hatch, i.e. find the appropriate fly that will match what is hatching on the water, which, on this particular day was a size 18 gray caddis.

Gradually as the insects starting rising to the surface, so did the trout, and the hatch was on! Kyle and I stood in water up to our waist, casting to unsuspecting fish that were so focused on these caddis flies they barely noticed our presence in their pool.

One cast after another yielded a catch of brown trout…anywhere from 9-16 inches…trout after trout. Kyle caught the first fish and started counting. He proudly caught the second one too. Then it was my turn. After that, we alternated for the most part, catching and carefully releasing each fish, thanking each of these beautiful creatures for giving us such joy.

About an hour and a half later there was a second hatch – this time of blue-winged olive mayflies, also size 18. So, we changed flies and once again were into the trout.  

As the insects emerge from the water, they immediately look for a place to land. At one point Kyle looked at me and exclaimed, “Joyce, you’re covered with bugs!” And I was, but so was he! They were on our clothes, crawling across our polarized sunglasses and clinging to the grass and rocks along the riverbank. It was a sight to behold!

After about 70 trout, we stopped counting and just enjoyed catching and releasing fish. From every direction, upstream or downstream, heads of trout were breaking the surface to capture these minuscule insects. It was truly an amazing sight!

 

Kyle and I cast and caught fish until our arms ached. It was a day like no other I had ever experienced on the water. Some anglers say you’re lucky to get one day like that in a lifetime!

We were among the last to leave the stream that day. As we walked back to the car and packed up to leave, I recalled a scene from the movie, A River Runs Through It. The father (who was a minister) and his two sons are displaying all their trout on the grass. With pride, the father says, “God was very good to us today.” Then he took the biggest catch of the day from his creel and added, “And God was particularly good to me!!”